Internal Displacement: Global Overview of Trends and Developments in 2009 - Armenia

A 2004 survey found over 8,000 people still internally displaced in Armenia, almost two decades after violence and conflict with Azerbaijan had forced them to flee in the early 1990s. The conflict displaced about 65,000 people within the country, but they received hardly any government attention compared to other larger displaced groups, including refugees from Azerbaijan and people displaced by a 1988 earthquake and other disasters. International organisations have also largely neglected their plight. The low public profile and lack of registration and monitoring of these IDPs have made it difficult to estimate how many have achieved durable solutions.

There are no precise figures on the number of IDPs who have returned to their homes. Returnees mainly rebuilt houses on their own, and the quality of education and health care remains poor. Some returnees are not fully safe as landmines have not been cleared and skirmishes between Armenia and Azerbaijan continue. This continued insecurity has hindered their farming livelihoods.

Nor is up-to-date information available on IDPs who have integrated in the place of displacement or settled elsewhere in the country. There have been no major barriers to the integration of IDPs in areas outside their place of origin, but nor has the government put in place any support to facilitate it.

The government has proposed several programmes for IDPs and others in the border areas but has not allocated funds to them. In 2009, it was seeking foreign funds for its latest programme, which it had adopted in 2008.

IDPs and returnees will not achieve durable solutions until their specific needs are addressed. There is a need to support IDPs who have chosen to integrate in their place of displacement, to support non-agricultural livelihoods for returnees and adopt a national housing strategy giving special consideration to IDPs whose housing was damaged or destroyed.